Military & Defense
Rassvet: Russia is already using its own “Starlink” over Ukraine, Kyiv says
Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) says Russia is already using its new Rassvet satellite network for military communications over Ukraine, aiming to make its attack drones more accurate and less prone to jamming.
Russia is already using the new Rassvet satellite network, presented as the Russian answer to Starlink, for military communications over Ukraine. This is stated by the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of Ukraine’s Defence Ministry in a written reply to Reuters. “Russia is using the Rassvet satellite system over Ukrainian territory for military purposes,” said HUR spokesman Andrii Yusov.
The aim, according to the HUR, is for Russian attack drones to become more accurate and less vulnerable to jamming. Rassvet can give Moscow a two-way data link with its unmanned systems: reconnaissance drones would send data in real time and operators would change the course of attack drones in flight, with less reliance on a pre-programmed route. That way a drone could follow a moving target or avoid air defences. “In the long term this could make strike and reconnaissance drones more effective and make them harder to intercept by electronic warfare and electronic intelligence systems,” Yusov said.
A small network, for now
The network is still small. Russia put 32 Rassvet satellites into orbit this year, in two launches in March and July, while SpaceX’s Starlink has more than 10,000. “The satellite constellation is not enough for the time being for uninterrupted coverage of Ukrainian territory. Communication is available intermittently, when the satellites pass over the respective areas,” the HUR notes. New launches are planned by the end of 2026 to increase geographic coverage. Bureau 1440, which coordinates the state project, is aiming for more than 900 satellites by 2035.
Sanctions and the Starshield factor
Ukraine is trying to hit the project with sanctions, as it did with Russian missile-industry figures. On October 30 Volodymyr Zelensky signed decrees against 10 companies and 19 Russian citizens involved in developing Rassvet, among them Bureau 1440. The HUR has published a list of 49 companies from Russia and Belarus that, it says, are involved in the project.
The Ukrainian side has a big advantage from the military version of Starlink, Starshield, in drones and front-line communications. In October its units faced speed limits on Starshield, which have now been lifted. The Russians, by contrast, were left without the Starlink terminals they had procured on the grey market when SpaceX deactivated them earlier this year.
